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> Understanding Causes of Muscle Cramps Helped Me to Stop Freaking Out

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Understanding Causes of Muscle Cramps Helped Me to Stop Freaking Out

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by Cosima Brand on September 28, 2012

Cosima Brand

About the Author

Cosima Brand is a professional writer and expecting first-time mother. She enjoys all things arts and crafts, and is an avid cook with a passion for trying different world cuisines. Her work has appeared in Ethical Living Magazine and Politact.com.

About the Blog

WhatToExpect.com supports Word of Mom as a place to share stories and highlight the many perspectives and experiences of pregnancy and parenting. However, the opinions expressed in this section are those of individual writers and do not reflect the views of Heidi Murkoff of the What to Expect brand.

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As a first-time mom-to-be, I've noticed my "freak-out" capacity has increased far beyond what I would have anticipated. Any twinge, ache, pain, or vague feeling I experience makes me panic and worry that something is wrong. For example, I was clearly not understanding the causes of muscle cramps. Instead, I was asking myself, "Is the baby okay?" "Should I call the doctor?" "What's going on with me???"

Coming into my second trimester, I started getting a lot of muscle cramps, and not just the usually suspects in the legs and feet. I was getting cramps and painful spasms in my hips, buttocks, and even in my back. Cue freak-out mode. Going online didn't help ease my freak outs either, because every pain and cramp seems to be also a possible sign of something terrible. Preeclampsia, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, toxoplasmosis... or it could all be just nothing and perfectly normal. Of course, my freak-out brain kept worrying.

Just to ease my mind, I went to my doctor to find out the real causes of muscle cramps, and whether or not I should be worried. I'd heard before that normal leg cramps can be a sign of lack of calcium and magnesium during pregnancy. My doc confirmed that this was a possible theory, however, for the kinds of cramps and pains I was having, she thought there was probably another culprit. And no, it wasn't one of the horrible scenarios I'd been dreading. Everything was fine with Bubba.

The real culprit in my case was most likely the surge of progesterone that pregnancy brings and the second trimester hormone relaxin. Both of these hormones are responsible for helping the muscles and ligaments in the body, particularly around the pelvis, relax and loosen in preparation for birth. Because I've always been very flexible and double-jointed, the relaxin and progesterone were causing muscle cramps and spasms further up my back than was normal, but thankfully, it was nothing to worry about.

Now that I'm aware of what's going on in my body, I can do something about it, like light strengthening exercise for my back and avoiding heavy lifting. And yes, understanding the causes of muscle cramps has helped me tone down my freak-outs, which is probably the thing to come out of my achy-breaky back.

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